Summary

This book analyses the origins of modern party politics in America. Dr Zvesper argues that the partisan conflict between Federalists and Republicans in the 1790s was not merely an interesting historical sequel to the American Revolution and the framing of the Constitution, but was a confrontation of two of the fundamental alternatives of modern political philosophy. Consideration of this fact, along with evidence of the class structure of American society, is then used to explain why the Republican party was the natural superior in the dispute with Federalism, and why Republican philosophy and rhetoric have been so essential to American politics ever since.